Toyota to Invest $373.8 Million for U.S. Hybrid Powertrain Production

Toyota recently announced a $373.8 million investment in five U.S. manufacturing plants to support production of its first American-made hybrid powertrain and to implement Toyota's New Global Architecture (TNGA) at its Alabama plant.

The investment will include adding new production of hybrid transaxles (hybrid vehicle transmissions) at the Toyota manufacturing facility in Buffalo, West Virginia; expanding 2.5-liter engine capacity at its plant in Georgetown, Kentucky; increasing production of 2.5-liter cylinder heads at the Bodine Aluminum plant in Troy, Missouri; and modifying the Bodine plant in Jackson, Tennessee, to accommodate production of hybrid transaxle cases and housings along with 2.5-liter engine blocks. The Toyota plant in Huntsville, Alabama, will also undergo a comprehensive upgrade to enable it to build engines that complement TNGA.

Each of the projects is scheduled to begin this year, and all should be operational by 2020. Fifty new jobs will be created because of the investment at the Alabama plant. There will be no net gain of jobs at the Kentucky, West Virginia or Bodine Aluminum facilities, but the investments will help to ensure the stability of the plants' future employment levels.

"This investment across five American plants expands capacity for our latest TNGA engines and localizes production of hybrid powertrains, a core Toyota technology," said Jeff Moore, Toyota's senior vice president for manufacturing. "It underscores Toyota's confidence in the capability and global competitiveness of our North American manufacturing."

The 2.5-liter engines manufactured in Kentucky and the transaxles made in West Virginia will be used in hybrid vehicles built in North America, such as the Highlander Hybrid manufactured in Princeton, Indiana.

These projects, and others previously announced, move Toyota nearly halfway ($4.1 billion) toward its commitment to invest $10 billion in the United States, as announced by Toyota Motor Corp. CEO Akio Toyoda in January 2017.